Just For Fun: Comforting the disturbed, disturbing the comfortable

I've been to a lot of parades. I've even been in a few, including the St. Patrick's Day Parade in New York City one year. But my favorite parade to watch, and to participate in, is the Just For Fun Parade here in San Marcos, Texas.

The beginning of the Just For Fun Parade, 2012

Just For Fun Vikings, 2012

Basically, on the fourth Saturday of April, a large flock of "San Martians" put on some festive costumes, drag out their hula hoops, stilts, unicycles, bicycles, tricycles, pennyfarthings, skateboards, wagons, musical instruments, flowered garlands, day-glo accessories, tie-dyed T-shirts and all manner of whimsical things and parade through downtown. There are always a couple of rock bands riding on trailers. There are always children and dogs dressed up in colorful costumes. There is always at least one Viking, and typically a gorilla. San Marcos is a pleasantly strange place full of pleasantly strange people, and this is how we let our freak flags fly, giving them the momentum to keep flying throughout the year. Not everyone participates, and not everyone appreciates it -- but I did notice that the number of people who stepped out of their places of business to watch and wave as we passed by did outnumber the people passing by in their cars who looked genuinely concerned that this was going on. I imagine these people need hugs.

The Callous Taoboys, featuring what looks like
Pippi Longstocking on drums, 2012

I hadn't participated in Just For Fun in several years -- I usually get down to the Square and watch as the parade goes by, as the older photos indicate -- but this year I am very glad I did. I got to meet people I hadn't met before, because at the staging ground and during the parade there are no strangers -- everyone is a friend. I got to talk and march down the street with friends and acquaintances I don't get to see often. I got to see what kind of whimsical weirdness other members of my community felt like sharing with the town that day. (Even some of the people who'd lined up to watch the parade were in some kind of costume, including one guy clad in a flesh-toned body suit with a thong and what looked like strategically placed bits of a wig -- did anyone get a good picture of that guy?) I got to add my own little dash of color to the ephemeral, colorful, spangled tapestry of joy that is the Just For Fun Parade, and there's not much that feels better than taking your weirdness out of its box, putting it together with other people's weirdness, literally parading it around in public and making people you don't even know smile.

Your humble blogger in a belly dance costume and waving as she
marches among friends, 2014 (Photo by Julie Balkman)

It doesn't matter how old you are, how much money you make, what kind of very serious business you have to deal with every day -- fun is crucial. As the Internet meme says, we don't stop playing because we get old; we get old because we stop playing. And I love the Just For Fun Parade for giving the town an opportunity to very publicly play. Of every spring rite I've heard of, this is the one that I am most convinced keeps its participants -- those parading and those watching the parade -- young.

And as for the people who looked a little upset by the parade ... bless 'em. I hope they know how to have some kind of fun. But that's another thing the Just For Fun Parade accomplishes: Comfort the disturbed, disturb the comfortable. It comforts the "disturbed" by letting us be as weird as we wanna be together (though I would argue that we're not as disturbed as the people who never do anything for the sake of fun or hilarity). It disturbs the comfortable by reminding them that they share a city with people who aren't afraid to let it all hang out -- and maybe it challenges them to do the same.

Party on, San Martians, I love you all!